a priest from our motto carrillo fuentes
childhood village remained confessor of
mexico's arguably biggest drug lord till
the end of his days once he implored don
carrillo about the bloodshed he caused
cardio vehemently denied that he was a
criminal then he added that people that
work for him may have been killed but he
never killed himself or ordered to kill
anyone
at this moment the mexican government
and u.s agencies were hunting karil for
not one or two but 400 drug-related
killings
welcome to nutty history and this is the
untold story of amaro carrillo fuentes
the lord of the skies
[Music]
the mexican drug trade was at its peak
during the 80s under the guidance of
miguel angel felix gallardo and his two
captains rafael carlo quintero and
ernesto fonseca carrillo who was also a
monica diego fuentes uncle with domestic
production of weed and moving coke for
the medellin and cali cartel mexican
drug dealers were on top of the world
back then karil was stationed in ohinaga
chihuahua to oversee the coke shipments
of his uncle and to learn about border
operations from pablo acosta villarreal
and rafael aguilar guajado later
carrillo was asked to work with pablo
escobar and the cali cartel the
colombian snow manufactured by pablo and
the cali cartel needed to be moved from
colombia to the united states through
mexico
this was the moment gadil came up with
the idea that would earn him the title
of el senor de los yellos or as one
might say it in english the lord of the
skies in his stint in chihuahua kario
had made enough money to invest in a few
airlines as well as buy some jets of his
own he used those jets to transport coke
out of colombia and into the u.s with
mexico as the intermediary stop now
unlike american pilots like george jung
and barry seal who used small planes
gadil was using passenger jets unlike
americans his planes could not simply
fly under the radar so carillo's pilots
flew over it when most flights were
flying between thirty thousand feet to
thirty seven thousand feet carrillo's
planes would fly at nearly forty nine
thousand feet with pilots wearing
pressure suits you know top gun style
carrillo also worked with el chapo the
ariana felix family and the beltran
level organization to expand his
services and he made a boatload of money
the turnover was so high that cardio was
laundering nearly 20 million dollars
every year
just to keep his planes flying without
raising eyebrows
however things began to change in
february 1985 when miguel felix gallardo
made the terrible mistake of kidnapping
enrico camarena enrique camarena also
folly known as kiki among his peers was
a dea officer who was working in mexico
against the guadalajara cartel since
1980 to make it worse his men killed
kiki kamarena while torturing him and
this made uncle sam very mad until now
the dea was working with one hand tied
behind their back in mexico but kiki's
death allowed them to launch a full-on
invasion on the mexican drug cartel
rafael caro quintero aka rafa was the
prime suspect in the murder case of kiki
kamarena he was also the first of the
top rats of the guadalajara cartel to be
apprehended by the dea and his arrest
soon caused the whole house of cards to
collapse
despite all the political and wealthy
connections dalio's uncle danito and
miguel felix gallardo could not hide
from long from the dea and as the
guadalajara cartel lost all of its
leadership a power vacuum emerged in the
mexican drug market in 1989 allowing
cardio to climb the ladder
it was the early 90s and in the middle
of mexico city a chic seafood restaurant
was having quite a busy night a family
of six a husband wife and six children
were about to finish their meal when
about 12 men carrying machine guns and
cases entered the restaurant swiftly
they made their way towards the family
as waitresses tried to understand what
was happening they killed three
bodyguards and a customer who was
sitting at nearby tables to the family
the family had managed to hide
underneath their table before the
shooting began and managed to stay out
of the sight of the assassins who dashed
out of the restaurant assuming they had
just murdered don carrillo and his three
bodyguards well they were partially
correct they did kill amado carigo
fuentes's three bodyguards but not don
carillo himself they would have if they
were not in such a rush and may have
peeked under the table where the family
of eight were hiding carrillo the
husband and father of the six kids had
escaped the death of his whole family by
mere inches the assassination attempt
was a sign of cardio's success
under his leadership the ciudad juarez
cartel had become a threat for juan
garcia abrego head of the gulf cartel
who had ordered carrillo's assassination
in the next two years amado carillo
fuentes star rose on the mexican canvas
of the drug trade as he quietly
inherited most of the gulf cartel's coke
trade across the texas border this
acquisition made don carrillo the new el
jefe dijefes of mexican drug cartels
[Music]
the first sacrifice for carrillo's
ascension to power was none other than
his boss rafael aguilar guajaro carrillo
was aguilar's second in command since
1987 when aguilar became the head of the
juarez cartel aguilar was also federal
police commander of the direction
federal di seguadad the dfs a mere
reflection of how deep drug cartels and
mexican authorities were in bed together
karil killed aguilar in 1993 as the heat
was getting too much on aguilar and
carillo chose the cartel over his
loyalty for his long time friend and
boss carrillo soon replaced the top
management of the widest cartel with his
brother and sons and he buckled himself
in for the upcoming drug war in mexico
city as he knew killing aguilar would
cause repercussions the chain of events
that were set in motion by killing
aguilar led to the events that
transpired in the seafood restaurant
where don carrillo and his family
narrowly escaped certain death and that
night was just the beginning of things
not going according to plan for the gulf
cartel leader juan garcia abrego as more
and more names were struck off the dea's
most wanted list garcia became the next
most wanted man from that point forward
he was forced to manage his occupation
from remote locations constantly being
on the run but the pressure got the best
of garcia and his own paranoia made it
very difficult for him to keep control
of his operations meanwhile karil's luck
and hard work helped him to plug into
california's smuggling routes of two
other mexican drug groups the pacific
and cena lower cartels soon after their
leaders got arrested carrillo wasn't
just filling up the vacuum in the
mexican drug trade he was also building
up alliances to strengthen his place to
become the most powerful man on the
dea's most wanted list and it was
working as garcia got arrested in 1996
cardio became the emperor of the drug
traffickers in mexico according to the
u.s agents this wasn't just one powerful
cartel but a network of cartels worthy
to be called the mexican narcos
federation a kingdom of loosely knit
white collar cooperative members sharing
intelligence equipment and smuggling
routes instead of exchanging gunfire
[Music]
the new system was so effective u.s
officials believed that 25 tons of
colombian snow worth 500 million dollars
was being transported within a 48-hour
window
and all of that was being carried on don
carrillo's planes two french-built
caravel passenger jets and if rumors
were to be believed a boeing 747
modified to carry cargo within a couple
of years of this operation carrillo
amassed a colossal amount of wealth
rivaling the ill fortunes of pablo
escobar
his total wealth was estimated at around
25 billion dollars which was quite an
accumulation giving his humble
beginnings born on december 17 1956 in
guamachel a very small village in
sinaloa he was born in a large but poor
family of 11 siblings carillo was only
13 when he decided to leave his parents
village and earn wealth he promised
residents of the village that he would
not return until he was rich
and he delivered his promise on his
return cardio built a large church with
a larger than life statue of jesus for
the villagers and a large farmhouse for
his family however when it comes to his
personal taste the less said the better
as karil may have become wealthy his
taste remained downright ridiculous
his mansion was worth five million
dollars and called the palace of a
thousand and one nights it was built
with middle eastern architecture it had
oversized grottos on the outside but
inside the walls they were painted with
zebra prints the interior also fashioned
a rail velvet decor which just brought
the ridiculousness to a full circle not
to mention the disco balls hanging over
the bar were like the red nose on a
clown's face even cadilla's weapons were
gaudy and flashy they were plated with
gold and sported diamonds and other gems
encrusting in the shape of cardio's
initials vario was also spending
millions of dollars in bribes to have
authorities turn their eyes in another
direction at one point he even
threatened the mexican president himself
to make the mexican economy suffer
cardio had warned the mexican president
that if he left mexico because of the
heat upon him the mexican economy would
collapse because of him pulling millions
of dollars of cash flow and that he is
responsible for the country and it
worked the then mexican president
actually agreed to pull some favors to
give him a breather
[Music]
however despite spending so much money
on keeping the law at bay the anxiety of
his business being destroyed by the law
got the best of karil he used to tell
his sister alicia that the feds would
never catch him alive and that turned
out to be true in his ludicrous schemes
to escape the inevitable justice cardio
decided to have plastic surgery and
liposuction in 1997 to alter his facial
and physical features so no one could
recognize him anymore unfortunately it
didn't go according to plan the
operation went south due to
complications caused by either
medication or a malfunctioning
respirator unfortunately two physicians
were found dead encased in concrete
inside steel drums their bodies showed
signs of heavy torture clearly
carrillo's men made them pay for their
mistake the death of carrillo created
another vacuum in the mexican drug
cartel and it painted a target on the
leaderless widest cartel
after a bit of internal struggle gadil's
brother managed to get hold of the
leadership in the cartel but
unfortunately the drug wars in mexico
have given the country nothing but
endless violence and strife what do you
think can be done to stop cartel-related
violence in mexico tell us in the
comments and as always thanks for
watching nutty history